We ended our trip through the Pacific Northwest with a jaunt across southern Oregon. We stopped by Crater Lake National Park to take in the incredible views of this 1900 foot deep lake that sits inside the ancient Mount Mazama crater.
In the view below, we see Wizard Island, a volcano within the massive Mazama volcano.
Further north near Bend, Oregon, smoke from the fires that have been burning in the area for the past several weeks filter out the sun over 286' high Salt Creek Falls. Here we searched unsuccessfully for American Dipper and the Black Swifts that nest adjacent to and behind the falls.
If you ever want to visit "The Middle of Nowhere" then you need to go to Burns Junction, Oregon. I have been to many remote places across the U.S. but, this area felt the most remote to me. Malheur and Harney Counties in southeast Oregon encompass an area roughly equal to the combined areas of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey. The Google maps image below gives a sense of how remote this area is.
Burns Junction shows a population of 641. I'm not sure how many species they are including in that total.
We ended the trip with 138 total species observed and 19 new for 2025. This brings the YTD 2025 total to 523. I also picked up 13 life birds on the trip to bring my life list total to 591.
Then it was back to Key West to await the arrival of all the post cards we sent to the man cubs during the trip. Clearly, the USPS remains America's beacon of operational inefficiency challenged only in its gross incompetency by the IRS. Our postcards would have arrived much sooner and for a lot less cost had we been able to send them by Pony Express.
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